In terms of weapons, Snowblind promises a lot. The guns are all distinctly techno, but borrow heavily from themes present since the dawn of first-person shooting. There's the pistol, machinegun, shotgun, mine launcher, missile launcher, sniper rifle, Half-Life flavored push / pull device, the EMP laser, and more. Each weapon also has a distinct alternate fire not necessarily related to its primary purpose. For instance, the machinegun can also launch grenades, the shotgun can fire sticky bombs, the pistol shoots a small missile, and the EMP weapon features a secondary orb shot. Of course, there are still flash, stun, frag, and EMP grenades to use. Snowblind's biggest gimmicks, however, are the nanotechnology augmentations of its protagonist.

Among other things, Nathan Frost can slow time, activate a target tracker, energize a ballistic dispersion field, and initiate a short term cloak. These futuristic bonuses come in handy but are never needed to progress through the game. Much like the other components of Snowblind, while the options are presented, the game doesn't beat players over the head with them. It has never been absolutely necessary to use any of the Nano powers, anyway.

The singleplayer campaign has thus far been extremely satisfying. During and between long and sustained levels, Snowblind hits players with short, but highly stylized in-game cutscenes that further develop the storyline, which has yet to spiral out of control. So far we've defended our base against a surprise attack, infiltrated an enemy complex, disabled enemy anti-aircraft cannons, and led a rescue operation. It's moving along briskly, but in a sort of nicely grounded way. Unfortunately, mutants and aliens and Bigfoot could still be introduced, so we'll have to wait and see how it all turns out.

Multiplayer is a bit easier for us to sum up. Across LAN Snowblind is currently performing very well on Xbox and PS2, though we haven't yet had an opportunity to test the PC version's net code. On the consoles, the game will support up to 16 players and full voice support, a number that will undoubtedly increase for the PC. Aside from that, all three versions of the game should boast identical feature sets, which includes class-based gameplay and a variety of interesting modes.

A Kind of Streetlight

Atop Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, Snowblind features Assault, Tactical Assault, Hunter, Quick Demolition, Capture the Flag, and Fast Flag capture. Within in each mode players can opt to begin as one of six classes that determine starting weaponry and basic augmentations. The classes include Grunt, Heavy, Scout, Sniper, Agent, and Berserker. Finally, even though the singleplayer game features the occasional controllable vehicle and robot ready for commandeering, we've yet to see these gameplay devices in the few multiplayer matches we've had the time to enjoy, which isn't to say they're not implemented, though.

Regardless of whether or not the multiplayer component of Snowblind lives up to the more approachable, interactive singleplayer campaign, the game should certainly appeal to shooter enthusiasts due to its tight pacing and colorful, yet gritty art style. On the PS2, Snowblind already stands near the top of the genre, but on Xbox and PC it faces tougher competition. That said, we have no reason to doubt the final's worth based on our play of this preview build.